San Francisco-based home goods chain Williams-Sonoma reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, aided by fewer discounts and strong online sales in the holiday season.

The company, operator of Williams-Sonoma cookware stores and the Pottery Barn furnishings chain, also raised its quarterly cash dividend by 41 percent to 31 cents a share, and approved a new $750 million stock repurchase program. Its shares rose 5.2 percent to $47.55 in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

In the years after the 2007-09 recession, the company has focused on selling more through its website and catalog, helping it become the e-commerce leader among home furnishings chains.

Sales at its direct-to-consumer business, which includes catalog and e-commerce, rose 19.3 percent in the fourth quarter, covering the busiest selling season of the year.

Net earnings rose to $133.7 million, or $1.34 a share, from $122.6 million, or $1.17 a share, a year earlier. Analysts were looking for $1.29 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said there was nothing wrong with the officials expressing “private political views via private text messages.” Strzok, in particular, “did not say anything about Donald Trump that the majority of Americans weren’t also thinking at the same time,” he said.

By William Booth | Washington Post LONDON – At $1 billion it is the most expensive embassy ever constructed. But its designers say the new American chancery on the Thames River marks a paradigm shift in design: the U.S. Embassy here will exude openness, while hiding all the clever ways it defends itself from attack. After decades of building American...

State regulators are due to consider a plan to replace power from the Metcalf Energy Center in south San Jose with alternative electricity sources, including battery storage. If implemented, the plan could boost PG&E customers’ utility bills.